


Forgiveness

by HalfASlug



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Post-Episode: s02e04 The Girl in the Fireplace
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-13
Updated: 2016-04-13
Packaged: 2018-06-02 03:06:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6548140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HalfASlug/pseuds/HalfASlug
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After Mickey's first trip in the TARDIS, the Doctor tries to carry on as normal. However, their next adventure shrinks him down to size and Rose is left to fix everything.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Forgiveness

**Author's Note:**

> Billie Piper had a tiny Tenth Doctor in her pocket at a convention. Somehow, that led to this.

“You have to admit, babe, this is a tiny bit inconvenient.”

“Shut up.”

“It’s a small hiccup that could-”

“I swear-”

“Ooh, that carpet is the exact same shade of green as my car.”

Rose glared at Mickey the best she could as she stormed towards the TARDIS with her key out and waited. Judging by the smirk he was failing to suppress, he hadn’t finished speaking.

“You know. My Mini.”

She unlocked the TARDIS door, stepped in and slammed the door behind her.

“That’s very big of you!” she heard Mickey call as she made her way to the console. She was almost there when she heard the door open again.

It had been one of those days and Rose had been ready to go to bed for the last two hours. After a morning of the Doctor pretending that everything was okay between them and an afternoon of them visiting an old friend of his on a planet that had been destroyed centuries before she was born, she was bored and irritable. It wasn’t that the planet or its reptilian inhabitants were horrible. In fact, it made a nice change to be surrounded by peaceful aliens that only wanted to show them around.  It wasn’t even the planet itself as the warm climate meant she could wear her dungaree dress without freezing on a Scottish moor and being judged by royalty.

It did, however, have everything to do with the Doctor’s reaction to abandoning her on a broken down space station and shutting her out when he finally returned was to almost entirely ignore her.

As they’d been given a tour of the new science lab the Doctor had wanted to see, he’d kept his hands in his pockets when he wasn’t fiddling with something. When he was fiddling with something, he’d explain to an interested Mickey what it was. The subtle changes were small enough that she couldn’t bring them up without sounding petty, but significant enough that she felt the sting of rejection every time it happened.

Of course, when she got five minutes with him alone to confront him whilst Mickey was shown something similar to a jet pack, his wandering hands found a device that promptly activated and shrunk him down to the size of her mobile.

“Isn’t this technology just incredible, Rose!”

“Yeah. Especially if it’s got a reverse switch.”

“Ah.”

Once it had been explained by their hosts that the effects would wear off in a few hours and Mickey had stopped laughing, the group continued their tour with the Doctor alternating between walking along table tops and being carried. Rose was just grateful she wouldn’t have to scour the galaxy for size minus six Converse.

Before they had seen the rest of the lab, the Doctor found himself out of breathe.

“Is he all right?” Rose had asked, alert to the possibility that the aliens were hostile after all.

“He will be,” the nearest scientist said with a shake of their scaly head. “It doesn’t seem much to us, but we’ve travelled a huge distance for someone his size.”

“Time for a Time Lord time out?” Mickey had quipped.

The Doctor’s response of a jaw breaking yawn didn’t help his case. By the time Rose and Mickey had said their goodbyes, he’d fallen asleep.

Rose slipped him into her front pocket, scared that she’d drop him, and ignored Mickey’s jokes as best as she could.

Now, back in the TARDIS, she carefully scooped him out and placed him on the jump seat. He grumbled, but soon went back to drooling over the worn leather.

With a heavy sigh, Rose pressed a couple of familiar buttons on the console and watched the rotor come to life. Across the room, Mickey’s face, bathed in green light, dropped in horror.

“W-w-what are you doing?”

“Getting us to London,” Rose replied, pulling what she thought could have been the time ship equivalent of the handbrake.

Mickey sprinted around to her and grabbed her arm. “Why? Can you even do that?”

“Yes!” She threw him off and moved away. “I’m not staying on this planet because knowing our luck a war will break out and I only know how to get us into the Vortex or back home. I know where I’d rather be if the Doctor takes days to de-Borrower himself, don’t you?”

Without waiting for Mickey’s answer, she pulled a lever that caused the entire ship to shudder as it took off. The way he clung to the console told her all she needed to know about his confidence in her driving ability.

Admittedly, she wasn’t over confident herself. She’d only correctly made this journey once before and that had been with the Doctor instructing her. He had told her it was best if she knew how to get herself home without tearing apart the TARDIS in case of emergencies. Remembering the dreams she still had about the Game Station, she had to agree with him.

Once the roar quietened and the rotor stilled, Rose gently retrieved the Doctor and put him in her pocket again. She left Mickey still trembling by the console and headed for the exit.

Upon opening the door, she smiled at the familiar courtyard and smell of the chippy around the corner. Thankfully, it was dark and no one was around to see them materialise. There were only so many rumours her mum could start to cover the various theories about the strange noises local residence had been hearing.

“You coming?” she called over her shoulder and started towards Bucknall House.

Her mum, as always, greeted her with a hug, the exact length of time it had been since she’d last phoned, three disparaging remarks about the Doctor and gossip about people Rose had never met. Her and Mickey already had mugs of tea in their hands before she realised someone was missing.

“Where is himself, then?” she asked, leaning against the kitchen counter. “Not like him to miss the chance to break my coffee table.”

Rose ignored Mickey’s pointed look over the rim of his mug. “TARDIS repairs or something. Wasn’t really listening. So what’s this about Fiona and Barry from the Post Office?”

With her mum distracted, Rose was free to drink her tea while carefully concealing the occasional movement in the front pocket of her dress. She should have known the Doctor would be as active asleep as he was awake.

Mickey left after he’d finished his drink, but Rose wasn’t allowed to escape as quickly as her mum guilted her into a girly film night. Under the pretence of changing into her pyjamas, she was able to go to her room to work out what to do with the slumbering alien in her pocket.

A hasty search of her room ended in one of her scarves in a shoe box doubling up as a bed. With the Doctor safely tucked in on her bedside table, Rose wrote a quick note explaining where he was and that she would be checking up on him.

Before she left, she took a moment to watch him sleep. Even in miniature he looked peaceful. She used her little finger to move his hair out of his eyes and lamented that she couldn’t make out his freckles.

He snuggled deeper into her scarf and muttered something she couldn’t distinguish.

Rose sat on her bed and sighed. Less than a week ago, everything had been fine. She’d adjusted to his new body and they were back amongst the stars again. Every moment not spent holding hands was a moment wasted. If their relationship didn’t change, then that was okay. She was still with him in every sense that mattered.

Then came France and the clockwork robots. Then came a woman he’d known two minutes who he was willing to snog and jump through time to rescue.

Then came the sense of rejection and foolishness that she never wanted to feel again.

“Everything all right?” her mum has asked when she emerged.

Rose smiled brightly and hoped it didn’t look fake. “Great! What are we watching?”

As they decided on a film, Rose tried not to think about how this was easily the weirdest method of sneaking a boy into her room she’d ever used.

One Bridget Jones later, and Rose’s constant yawning convinced her mum she was too tired for the sequel. She said goodnight as quickly as possible without seeming rude and shuffled off to her room.

Once inside, she rushed to the open shoebox and peered inside.

“Rose!”

She glanced at the closed door and held her finger to her lips. The excited look on the Doctor’s face shifted into a frown and he folded his arms. Rose then pressed a few buttons on her phone until her ringtone was blaring out of the tiny speakers, let it ring for a moment and then turned it off.

“Hey!” she said, grabbing the tiny note she’d left the Doctor and a pen. “Just going to bed now. How are the repairs going?”

She scribbled _Mum doesn’t know you’re here_ and gave it back to him. His eyebrows shot up and he dropped the scrap of paper. “Good thinking.”

“You feeling better?” Rose asked, crawling under her bed covers. She leant on her elbow so she could still see the Doctor.

“Great!” He flashed a brilliant yet tiny smile at her - then stifled a yawn.

“Looks it.”

The Doctor ruffled the back of his hair. After spending most of the evening in a shoebox or her pocket, it was already a mess. “Most of my energy is being used to regrow me. It’s exhausting work, Rose.”

“Maybe there’s a lesson to be learnt here?” she replied, raising her eyebrows. “Something about not playing with things that don’t belong to us?”

“Don’t know what you mean.”

Normally, Rose would’ve matched his grin, but her muscles were refusing to cooperate. One minute he couldn’t come anywhere near her and the next he was looking at her as though she was everything to him. The mercurial moods were giving her whiplash and she’d had enough of trying to win his affection.

It wouldn’t have been so bad if it had been her in the wrong. All of his strange behaviour started outside a chip shop when he clearly thought he said too much. Since then, he had been throwing barriers up between them. She hadn’t asked him about what he’d said - or nearly said - and had no intention of pushing him into something he wasn’t comfortable with. Yet it was still like she was being punished for what he felt was a slip up.

What was worse was that Rose suspected he knew what he was doing. Between Renette, Mickey and even a bloody horse, there was little chance it was all a coincidence.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” he asked. He stumbled across the lumpy scarf to the edge of the shoebox and gripped the edges.

“Long day.”

In the darkened room she could just make out the crease on his forehead. “It’s the same length as every other day.”

Rose flopped down on her back and pulled the covers over herself, rather than respond.

“Rose? Rooooose?”

She turned her head to the side and saw his fingers, fringe and nothing else poking out of the box. “What?”

“Any chance of an upgrade? Don’t get me wrong, as shoeboxes go, this is lovely, but it’s a bit undignified?”

Rose held her breath and counted to ten. “It’s the best I could do. Now go to sleep.”

“But, Rose, I-”

“No! You got yourself into this situation,” she hissed so her mum wouldn’t hear, “and I’ve looked after you ever since. I flew the TARDIS on my own, lied to my mum and you haven’t even thanked me!”

“Oh.” His hands slipped back into the box and the top of his head disappeared. “Sorry.”

“Goodnight, Doctor.” She turned her back to him and closed her eyes. It was a few seconds before he replied.

“‘Night, Rose.”

Too annoyed to sleep, but not wanting to give him the satisfaction of knowing that, Rose stayed uncomfortably still. Over her own forced even breathing, she heard rustling coming from the box. She could picture him moving around, failing to find a soft spot and dealing with itchy fibres. Guilt bubbled inside of her. He was ill, after all. Sort of.

After ten minutes, she sat up with a sigh. Looking into the shoebox, she saw the Doctor was wide awake as well. Knowing there was no chance of her sleeping with her conscience eating at her, Rose put her hand in the box.

“C’mon,” she whispered. “Don’t want you growing back while you’re in there, anyway.”

“Rose Tyler, you are truly wonderful.” He crawled onto her hand and she placed him on the opposite pillow.

She found a blanket at the end of her bed and put it over him. The Doctor snuggled closer into the pillow and thanked her. Within seconds, he was asleep.

Rose watched him until her eyelids became too heavy to do so. She’d dreamed of seeing the Doctor resting his head on that pillow more times than she could count. Though she’d never imagined the whole of his body would be there as well, the look of contentment he wore was something she wished she could always give him.

Before she knew she had fallen asleep, Rose woke up. She was barely aware of where she was, but quickly worked out that she was too hot. With a grumble, she thrust her arm out of the covers and hoped that would be enough to cool her down. Doing much more was beyond her capabilities.

Despite her best efforts, her brain slowly came back to life and began taking note of things around her. Her pyjama bottoms were twisted a bit and there was hair in her face. She couldn’t hear any cars or birds so it must have still been the early hours.

Most intriguingly of all, she was sleeping at a weird angle and her head was raised higher than normal.

Begrudgingly opening her eyes, she squinted into the darkness and saw the underside of the Doctor’s chin. She blinked several times to make her eyes work properly and saw the rest of him, currently half-under her.

It took a moment for the previous day’s events to catch up with her and she soon realised that he must have returned to normal size and she’d unconsciously taken the opportunity to snuggle up to him.

Rose had no idea whether to be annoyed or proud of her sleeping self.

“Hello,” a gravelly voice said.

Rose’s gaze snapped up to the Doctor’s face. He had one eye open.

“Hey. You grew up fast.”

“Only physically, I promise.”

They stared at each other in the dark. Rose squeezed him around the middle with a smirk.

“You okay with this?”

“Yep,” replied the Doctor. “Love a good cuddle, me.”

Rose rested her head back on his shoulder and felt him exhale. Now more awake, she could tell he had an arm wrapped around her and their legs were tangled together. It had been well over a year since she’d slept with someone like this. The security of another person’s warmth was something she hadn’t realised she missed.

In the quiet of night she could pretend they weren’t who they were and that this was normal. Not for the first time, she wondered if they had met differently, if he had been human and she had been extraordinary, what their life could have been.

As ever, she came to the same conclusion. If he wasn’t as brilliant as he was emotional guarded and she hadn’t learnt her lessons the hard way, then they wouldn’t be who they were.

She rather liked who they were. Most of the time.

Rose was just falling asleep again when the Doctor pushed her hair off her forehead and spoke.

“Thanks for looking after me.”

“Yeah, well, I wasn’t going to leave you behind.”

It hadn’t meant to come out so bitter, but she wasn’t awake enough to keep the inflections in her voice ruining a perfect moment. He tensed beneath her. Not wanting to explain herself, Rose rolled so her back was to him.

She bit her lip, hoping he’d let it drop, but to no avail.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered and she closed her eyes.

“Do you even know what for?”

“I -” There was a pause and Rose wondered if she should sleep on the sofa and make up a story for her mum in the morning. “I got scared,” he murmured almost to himself, “so scared. I forgot how lucky I am to have found you.”

The crack in his voice made Rose move onto her back. Meeting his eyes, she saw the sincerity mixed with the guilt.

“You’re still the very best,” he told her.

“Yeah?”

“Of course.” He smiled and Rose remembered all the times she’d been powerless mirror the action. The Doctor always knew the right words to make everything better.

Jimmy had been great at that as well.

Rose shrugged as best as she could from her position. “Then act like it.”

His smile slowly morphed into an unreadable expression. She refused to be the first to look away. Eventually, he inclined his head slightly and Rose thought she saw a flash of pride in his eyes.

Taking this to mean their conversation was over, Rose closed her eyes again. She didn’t move any closer to the Doctor, but didn’t turn over either. She’d said everything she was willing to say. If he wanted to make whatever they were work, then he’d have to meet her halfway. She’d done the alternative before and had promised herself to never do so again.

It didn’t matter if they were friends or something else. If he was going to make her feel small, she was going to walk away.

As she was debating whether she thought she could be strong enough to leave the Doctor and the TARDIS behind if she needed to, the mattress dipped as he moved onto his side. He paused for a beat and then put his arm around her. She thought that would be as far as he was willingly to go, but then he pressed a gentle kiss to her cheek.

Rose fought to keep her eyes closed as he settled back down, curled into her side where she could feel his breath on her shoulder. He was far from forgiven for his actions in France, but he hadn’t destroyed their relationship as utterly as he had the mirror on the space station. She knew she was getting ahead of herself, but Rose hoped that in a few months she would be able to look at this moment, and be able pin-point it as something that strengthened them.

Until then, they would have to take small steps towards each other as they leapt across space and time.

She took his hand and he squeezed it. That would be enough for now.


End file.
